Last year, the Pittsburgh Steelers fell apart to end the season. Their vaunted defense looked lost, while their offense came crashing back down to earth. The Steelers will keep most of their important pieces on defense, but they’ll likely need to retool their offense once again. That side of the ball has been a mess for years, and while things got better last year, it still wasn’t good enough. Comparing the Steelers to the Philadelphia Eagles, Ben Roethlisberger doesn’t seem to have a lot of faith in his former team’s offense.
“Offensively, we’re in a couple years where they’re trying to build personnel,” Roethlisberger said Tuesday on his podcast, Footbahlin’ with Ben Roethlisberger. “You have one receiver. You’ve got a really good tight end. You’ve got a couple of running backs that are by committee; you’ve got a bunch of young linemen.
“[The Eagles] had the biggest offensive line, a veteran group. They had two to three offensive receiver weapons. They’ve got a quarterback that can run the ball and throw the ball. They’ve got an MVP-candidate running back. So, they were built for this moment. The Steelers’ offense is not built for anything right now. Just being honest.”
Roethlisberger isn’t really wrong. The Steelers’ offense almost feels directionless. Part of that is because they don’t have a quarterback. At the moment, they don’t have their 2025 starter under contract. With that kind of uncertainty, it’s tough to say what they’re capable of.
The Steelers will probably target one of the veteran quarterbacks available in free agency, but will any of those guys make them a contender? Even if they bring back Justin Fields or Russell Wilson, they still have all those other flaws Roethlisberger brought up. Quarterback isn’t the only reason they’ve struggled.
Comparing the Steelers to the Eagles, who just won a Super Bowl, might seem unfair, but it might be more apt than it appears. The Eagles’ brand of football mirrors what the Steelers want to be. They run the ball well, winning the battle in the trenches. Meanwhile, their quarterback isn’t the best in the league, but he does enough to help support them. That’s the way the Steelers tried to play last year.
Unfortunately, it didn’t really work. That shouldn’t be shocking, though. The Eagles have taken years to put their team together. Their offensive line is a veteran group that’s grown together. The Steelers’ offensive line included multiple rookies last year. The Eagles drafted Jalen Hurts and allowed him to develop. The Steelers have no clear plan at quarterback.
Their differences don’t end there, either. Whether they want to admit it or not, the Steelers’ offense has been rebuilding. With Roethlisberger in his prime, they were one of the best units in the league. However, those days are long gone.
Luckily, the Steelers have an entire offseason in front of them. They should be able to fix many of their issues through free agency and the draft. They made good progress last year, and if that continues, they might have more of a direction by the time the season starts. Maybe they’ll be as good as the Eagles in a few years. Rome wasn’t built in a day, though. The Steelers still need time to construct their offense.
